Both the Northville boys and girls cross country teams found their way to the podium with third-place finishes in Friday's Michigan State University Spartan Invitational.

Both teams competed in the Elite Division with Birmingham Seaholm, led by the one-two finish of Audrey Belf (17:52 for 5,000 meters)) and Rachel DaDamio (17:54), scored 58 points to lead the 28-school girls field.

Traverse City Central (139) and defending state champion Northville (169) finished second and third, respectively.

"This was a great day for us as we raced well and had a good showing against the top teams in the state," Northville coach Nancy Smith said. "We raced without our top runner LexaBarrott, who we kept out because of a quad problem. It is early in the season and we did not have to risk her by putting her in. The rest of the girls stepped up and filled the void of her absence."

"Of the seven who raced today, only Emma Herrmann has raced in the varsity race at MSU and she put in her career best time and broke into the 18-minute area," Smith said. "Hailey Harris and Taylor Gattoni also used the competition to run career best times."

Meanwhile, the Northville boys finished with 153 points and duplicated its third-place finish of a year ago only behind Waterford Mott (118) and Rockford (153) among the 35-team field.

Royal Oak's Ben Hill was the individual winner in 15:06, while Northville junior ConorNaughton ran a personal best 15:50 to place 16th overall.

"I was thrilled with our results, five of our varsity runners had career P.R.'s," Northville coach Chris Cronin said. "It was a tough week for Conor. His grandmother and number fan, Norma Hastings, passed unexpectedly earlier in the week, and the funeral was Friday morning. After the race, we shared a pretty emotional moment. To handle everything he did this week speaks volumes to Conor's character and resiliency. He's a great young man, we are lucky to have him running out front."

Meanwhile, senior teammate Nick Noles finished 27th in 16:03 to also make the podium (top 30).

"Nick is still knocking the racing rust off, but his 16:03 is a good sign that he getting close," Cronin said. "Nick's a stronger runner and thrives when the terrain gets lumpy. I look for him to really take flight in our upcoming races."

"Those are the times the elite teams in the state are running, and races like the Spartan Invitational make us acutely aware of what we need to work on moving forward," Cronin said. "We are in the hunt for a title, but there is work that needs to be done."

Dual meet sweep

It was a landslide victory for both the Northville girls and boys cross country teams Sept. 9 in the KLAA Central Division dual meet opener against South Lyon at Cass Benton Park.

Freshman Rachel Zimmer's first place 5,000-meter time of 21:07 led the Mustang girls to a 18-45 win over the Lions, while senior Sean McCullough crossed the finish line first for the Northville boys in a 15-49 triumph.

The Northville girls captured nine of the first 10 spots with South Lyon's MaijuOkssa breaking up the domination in third (21:44).